American Lutheranism, Vol. 1

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Excerpt from American Lutheranism, Vol. 1: Early History of American Lutheranism and the Tennessee SynodWord of God. Christian organizations and unions must not be in violation of the Christian unity of the Spirit. Organi zations effected in harmony with the divine object and norm of Christian fellowship are true visible churches, i. E., visible unions as God would have them. They are churches of the pure Word and Sacrament, professing the Gospel and deviating from none of its doctrines. Christians have no right to em brace, teach, and champion error. They are called upon and bound to believe, teach, and confess all, and only, Christian truths. Nor may they lawfully organize on a doctrinally false basis. Organizations persistently deviating from the doctrines of the Bible and establishing a doctrinally false basis, are sects, i. E., false or impure visible Churches. Yet, though error never saves, moreover, when consistently developed, has the tendency of corrupting the whole lump, false Churches may be instru mental in saving souls, inasmuch as they retain essential parts of the Gospel-truths, and inasmuch as God's grace may neu tralize the accompanying deadly error, or stay its leavening power. Indeed, individuals, by the grace of God, though error ists in their heads, may be truthists in their hearts, just as one who is orthodox in his head may, by his own fault, be heterodox in his heart. A Catholic may, by rote, call upon the saints with his lips, and yet, by the grace of God, in his heart, put his trust in Christ. And a Lutheran may confess Christ and the doctrine of grace with his lips, and yet in his heart rely on his own good character. False Churches as such, however, in asmuch as theirs is a banner of rebellion in the kingdom of Christ, do not exist by God's approval, but merely by His sufferance. It is their duty to reform on a basis of doctrinal purity and absolute conformity with the Word of God.About the PublisherForgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.comThis book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully, any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.